The use of solidification technology and solid block detergents in institutional and industrial operations is described in U.S. Reissue Pat. Nos. 32,762 and 32,818 to Fernholz et al. Sodium carbonate hydrate cast solid products using substantially hydrated sodium carbonate materials is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,520 to Heile et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,134 to Heile et al.
Attention has been directed at producing detergent materials from soda ash (sodium carbonate). Early work in developing the sodium carbonate based detergents found that sodium carbonate hydrate based materials swelled. That is, the sodium carbonate hydrate based materials were dimensionally unstable after solidification. Swelling can interfere with packaging, dispensing, and use. It is believed that the dimensional instability of the solid materials relates to the unstable nature of various hydrate forms prepared in manufacturing the sodium carbonate solid materials.
An E-form hydrate binder has been used for solidifying detergent compositions. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,392 to Lentsch et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,324 to Lentsch et al. The E-form hydrate binder results from an interaction of alkali metal carbonate, sequestrant, and water.